While adhesive-backed articles such as adhesive bandage strips are known in the art, they are commonly sealed in sterile, individual wrappings and packaged within paper or metal boxes. Examples include the well-known "Band-Aid.RTM." brand bandage strips. While popular, these products suffer certain disadvantages such as the fact that the bandages themselves can be difficult to remove from the wrappings and difficult to apply to the desired location. The user generally must remove the bandage from the wrapping, remove the nonstick layers from the adhesive portion of the bandage and then attempt to apply the bandage to the desired location without the bandage curling or having the bandage adhere to itself.
Attempts to improve upon this concept include U.S. Pat. No. 4,993,586 to Taulbee, et al. which discloses a bandage dispenser device in which a continuous strip is grasped with one hand and a bandage is removed with the other hand. This is accomplished by the use of a continuous strip with a first and second layer. Bandages are placed on sterile mounting pads affixed to the first layer. The bandages and the first layer are then enclosed by a second layer and stacked or rolled within a container. In use, the sheet is pulled through a splicer attached to the container that cuts the first and second layer. The second layer is then lifted and removed. The first layer is then grasped with one hand and a bandage is removed with the other.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,133,477 to Etheredge, et al., also discloses a bandage dispenser device employing the use of a continuous strip. The strip has a nonstick coating upon which one end of a bandage is affixed. The other end of the bandage and the cotton gauze area of the bandage are covered with a release sheet. In use, the continuous sheet is grasped with one hand and the bandage is grasped and removed with the other hand. The bandage is then applied to the desired location by affixing the exposed half to the skin. Once applied, this end of the bandage is held in place while the release sheet is removed from the bandage and the other end of the bandage is applied to the skin.
Despite these and other prior art devices, there remains a need for a dispensing device for adhesive-backed articles, such as adhesive bandage strips, by which the article may be grasped with one hand from the front of a dispenser and then applied, also one-handedly, to the desired location without the article curling or adhering to itself. Both Taulbee and Etheredge require the use of two hands to remove and apply a bandage strip and neither address the problem of the bandage strip curling or adhering to itself. Further, the device disclosed by Taulbee would entail considerable manufacturing costs due to the splicer structure.
While the prior art has improved upon access to adhesive-backed articles, there is a need for both improved access to the article and improved applicability of the article. This would permit, for example, a lab technician who is drawing blood from a patient to apply an adhesive bandage strip with one hand while maintaining pressure on the puncture with the other.